1885
- Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco opens
- V. Sattui Winery (pictured) in the Napa Valley is established
- Leland Stanford Junior University is founded (on paper) by Leland Stanford, former governor of and U.S. senator from California and leading railroad tycoon, and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year.